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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-19 Daily Xml
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Aboriginal Health

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel) (15:15): As has been said before with no less feeling, reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples requires changes of the heart and spirit. It requires determined work and at times a willingness to face criticism. Jeanette Lindqvist, present in the gallery, a member of my community, identified the nonconsensual use of the contraceptive Depo-Provera on Aboriginal girls in Oodnadatta. I have learned about her work and I wish to acknowledge it in this place. In consequence of her work, she faced ostracism.

Jeanette, then Sister Jeanette Kelly, was employed as a nurse by the Aboriginal Health Service at Oodnadatta in 1982. She was 32. Her house was always open. She cared deeply for the Aboriginal community. Jeanette commenced a review of how Depo-Provera had been administered. She considered medical records and interviewed Aboriginal girls. It was her view that Depo-Provera had been administered without consent on a number of occasions. She felt her view was supported by others in the community.

In December 1984, Jeanette's concerns with the focus of an article in The Advertiser. The newspaper wrote:

Aboriginal teenage school-girls at Oodnadatta had been taken from their classrooms and unwillingly given injections of the controversial three-month contraceptive drug Depo-Provera it was claimed in Adelaide yesterday.

Jeanette is reported to have said, 'I believe it is still happening in Port Augusta and Alice Springs and some WA communities.'

There were significant racial tensions in Oodnadatta. Many felt that the Aboriginal Health Service was making a case to run the hospital. Rumour and speculation replaced all reasoning and careful reflection. On her return from Adelaide after the story appeared in the newspaper I mentioned, Jeanette faced a sign in the street which read, 'Welcome back liar.' As well, a card Jeanette received at the time reads in part, 'I just want to reassure you that most Australians feel the same way about [this] as you do.'

The health minister the Hon. John Cornwall MLC established a review group to examine the use of Depo-Provera in Oodnadatta. The group's redacted report was tabled in the other place on 21 August 1986. Its findings are oblique. For example, the report reads in part:

The group believes that the situation should never have been allowed to occur and its incidence can be attributed to a number of factors including the remoteness of the region, a lack of facilities and resources and perhaps over zealousness.

The report also states:

It is probably fair to say that the situation at the time was handled from a European perspective with some lack of appreciation of the perception of the Aboriginal women involved.

The group was reluctant to recommend punitive action. It expressed the opinion that the evidence before it was inconclusive. It identified conflicting accounts and gave them equal weight. Quoting from the report:

The Group does not believe beyond reasonable doubt that force was used.

Amongst other matters, it is unclear why the report was prepared having in mind the criminal law standard beyond reasonable doubt. A report prepared having regard to the balance of probabilities may have come to different conclusions and in other ways have been more useful. Thank you, Jeanette, for your important work. In this way and in other ways, reconciliation is made possible.

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